The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1887-07-19
iEELlNG WEST VA. TUESDAY VoIn
MINNESOTA. SCENERY.

MINNESOTA SCENERY,
nU MAXWELL ON THE WIN,
Ito Writes Eatertainlnsly OF the Upp
mississippi Country aud What MAY
Have Bsnn In tho Long Ago-L utn. 2
Der Inferior to West vlrslnin's.
Correspondence Of tht lntell,qeneer. "
LASaDoN, MIMI, July 10. The thir
place l have crossed the Mississippi IL
La Crosse. l had cronaed it at New o
leana and at Rock leland. at La Gross
1t has very little Of beauty. 1t looks littl
like the Immense flood which passes Ne,
Orleans; but Ia on the contrary a series {
channels and bars, running In various d
rectlons and branching and uniting unit
one can hardly tell where the river BEGIN
or where tho ponds and Bwales end, Yel
1t is navigatle for steamers, aud when W
came to tho river proper we found II span
ned by dlaw.bridge, an arrangement In
tended to allow boats to pass up an,
down. A.ifl a .'sTi'ls = -. ; ~
A considerable city is on the banks o
the river where we crossed it.; and |,
Judge from the manufacturing going on
1t Is q centre Tor grain and lumber. lFlon
mills five and six stories high told the e1
tent oil that industry. And the interes
IN lumber, should think, far surpasse,
that OF grain. In fact, l saw ten times a.
many logs at La Gross as over cav a
any one other place. The estuaries and
ponde, oil from the main river, were Jam
med with them for miles. They hat
been driven III there during the sprins
loods, and were held by booms and
chains, waiting to be sawed into lumber
or to DO loated on down the Mississippi
Az q general thing the logs were small
They do not compare favorably with thu
lumber that Is hoated down the Wea
Virginia rivers. Il do not know whence
they come, but I presume, OF course from
some place toward tho head of the Missis
aippi. They are universally pine, so ial
as saw. Il li'
L. IN A BETTER COUNTRY.
While the passage Of the Mississippi a,
L. Orosae brought me from the State Of
Wisconsin to Minnesota, yet I did not e1.
psct to find any great and immediate
change III the appearance Of the country.
From the place OF crossing for nearly one
hundred miles my road WAS up the west
bank OF the Mississippi, and found al.
most INN sdiately that there was change
Tor the better IS regarded the growth Of
vegetation. The trees were larger and
were green, and q fine sort Of grass covered
the fields and the hillsides, growing all in
among the trees and down to the watefo'
edge. ms,
A high blutfruns parallel with tho river
tho whole way from La Crosse to Hastings,
at which point our road left the Missis.
sippl, alter having recrossed to the eastern
side. This bluff in aome places is Just on
the very bank OF the stream and in othe.
places is from one to two miles away. II
is several hundred feet high, psrhups
nearly thousand feet in come places. AZ
1t fscel the river, it Is ateep, rocky and
wild. l bad not thought to lind anything
80 rugged and precipltous in this part 81
the country. In places, cliffs hundreds Of
teet high overhang the plains beneath,
and the rocks from the lodges beneath
have been loosaned end have fallen down
until along the base OF the cliffs the piles
OF rubbish have accumulated by millions
OF ton1. Tho rocks are yellow, solt and
coarse. They are very soft. They seem
TO have been burnt, and one can break
and cfumbls them in his hands and then
grind them to sand. From distauce they
have the appearance OF vast unshapen
piles OF brick thrown together in rude
fashion, by chance and without design. :
THE NAKED ROCKS.
Trees, brush and grass grow along these
bluffs wherever there is any soil; but, in
many places the soil and trees, rocks,
rubbish and all have loosened and have
rushed to the plains below in the manner
OF land slldes and avalanchea, thus leay.
ing great bare fronts to the ellis, without
vegetation or anything but the naked
rocks. The result is, the whole line OF
bluffs has ragged appearance. Here a
belt OF timber, there plat OF grass, Won
der copse Of underbrush, aud near by a
rocky front from which soil and trees
have disappeared. Itlooks like some stu.
pendous wall Of old, dilspidated human
masonry, partly oyergrown and partly
broken down. The mpresaion Of yastnees
which it makes upon one amounts almost
to sublimity. 70 the north and south.
for hundred nilee, although vision can.
not grasp It all at once, extends tho pom
derous wall, here standing regular and on.
tire, there broken down and ruined, and
all over at irregular intervsls, covered
with vegetation, just as old masonry usu.
ally Is in damp countries. si45.,.}
This region ia geolosically new. Ma.
ture has not yet had time to break and
deface as it has done in the Allegheny
mountains. The age waa not ancient
when this whole valley was the bottom of
a, shallow aea. Indeed it almost comes
within tho range of history to toll when
1t was. II our chrodicles extended as far
back as those OF the Jewe, Chineee and
Eyyptiansit may be that We could tell ex.
actIy when the Mississippi river came into
existence. The Arctic Ocean and tho
Gull OF Mexico st one time mingled their
waters above where I sit to write this !:
and the time is not so ancient as one
might hastily suppose. On every hand
are traces telling how recent it has been.
The prairies have not yet had time to be.
come covered with timber; although, in
q thousand years from now they will be-
come covered with timber If K human
agency does not interfere. In various
piacsa along tho Mississippi valley the
iarmera plowup curious fossils which they
call $'.spslriied wasp nests."f These are
nothing lnore than coral rocks which
grew in the warm water that once flowed
oyer the plsirH Of St. Louis, Omaha and
St. Paul. The existence Of this cora! tells
plainly that the sea OF this region was
warm, for coral does not grow in cold
water. i is reasonable that in that age
the Gull stream reached the Arctic Ocean
by flowing up tho valley OF the Missia-
sippi, and down tho Red River Valley o;
the North, or down tho Msckenzl, or over
the great plains which now form those
valleys. 81 n i,ig v
& NEAR THE BIG DIVIDE.
If such q aea current existed ct that
&;,no tratao6 ~ fhn ora tho+s ,ar. a.,